“First it was established that we did not have to leave the EU to have blue passports.

“Now we learn that the passports will be printed by a foreign company. And to add insult to injury, we will pay over the odds for them because the value of the pound has fallen since Brexit and they will have to be imported.

“Brexit is far too high a price to pay for a blue passport.”

The head of pro-Europe campaign group Best For Britain, Eloise Todd, said: “The new the pro-Brexit blue passports were supposed to be a statement of intent and now we find out they are to be made by the French or the Dutch. The irony is unreal.

“I guess the Brexit Blue is now classed as French Navy.”

A Home Office spokeswoman said: “We are running a fair and open competition to ensure that the new contract delivers a high quality and secure product and offers the best value for money for customers.

“All passports will continue to be personalised with the holder’s details in the United Kingdom, meaning that no personal data will leave the UK.

“We do not require passports to be manufactured in the UK. A proportion of blank passport books are currently manufactured overseas, and there are no security or operational reasons why this would not continue.”